Chris Paul may have turned in a 23-point, eight-assist effort against the Denver Nuggets on Monday, but after the team ended up on the wrong side of a 121-113 decision, the point guard couldn’t help but to feel personally responsible for the loss.
In a game that was defined by foul calls, Paul went to the line with 2.9 seconds remaining in the contest and the Thunder trailing, 109-108. The clutch-shooting floor general is probably the player head coach Billy Donovan would hand-pick to be put in that situation, especially since Paul — an 87% career free throw shooter — has connected on 90.1% of his attempts this season.
Paul stepped to the line and missed the first free throw. Rather than having an opportunity to push the team ahead with the second attempt, he only then had an opportunity to tie the game.
Paul connected on the second free throw and the game went to overtime, but in the extra period, the Thunder were sorely outplayed after Nikola Jokic and Paul Millsap combined to help Denver put the game away with a 10-2 run.
After the contest, Paul took the blame for the loss, opining that his missing the first free throw likely cost his team the game.
“If I make that free throw with 2.9 seconds left, I think we win that game. We missed them. But we could’ve won. Should’ve won.”
Paul’s quote comes courtesy of Brandon Rahbar of Daily Thunder.
The truth of the matter is that the Thunder had no answer for Michael Porter, Jr., were missing Dennis Schroder and Terrance Ferguson and couldn’t stop Nikola Jokic — the big man ended the game with a triple-double.
The Thunder lost Monday’s game because their defense failed them and because they couldn’t get dribble penetration and committed a total of 32 personal fouls.
But a good leader takes less credit than he deserves and accepts more blame than is warranted.
Chris Paul, obviously, is a good leader.